All You Need Is Love: Reflections on Song of Songs 2.8-13

 

RCL Proper 22B

1 September 2024

 

Anglican Church of the Epiphany

Surrey BC

 

         In the Scriptures there is one book that makes no mention of God.  That book is the Song of Songs from which we heard a portion as the first reading this morning.  It is a collection of love poems between a woman and a man that contains some language that is what we might call ‘racy’.  Despite the absence of any reference to God and some of the racy language, the Song of Songs has been part of the Hebrew Scriptures since the second century of what we call ‘the Common Era’, the period of time since the beginning of the Christian movement.

 

         In Judaism the Song of Songs is usually interpreted as a description of the love that God has for the people of Israel.  Portions of the Song of Songs are read at Passover and, in some Jewish traditions, at the beginning of the Sabbath on Friday night.  Christians have followed the Jewish tradition by generally interpreting the Song of Songs as a description of the love that Christ has for the Church and of the love between God and the soul.

 

         These interpretations are all well and good.  They calm the nerves of those who are bothered by the language of the Song of Songs, and they avoid dealing with the fact that the woman is the main voice in the Song of Songs, a fact that some Jewish and Christian traditions find hard to swallow.

 

         But I think that these traditional interpretations obscure an essential dimension of being a human being:  the importance of mutual and faithful loving relationships.  Without mutual and faithful loving relationships, we cannot grow into greater likeness to God, the ultimate goal of genuine human maturity.  Whether these mutual and faithful relationships are life-long relationships that involve sexual intimacy or relationships between family members or relationships between friends does not matter.  What matters is that we understand that how we love one another matters to God.

 

         Mutual and faithful relationships create loving communities that nurture and support our values and hopes.    Within loving communities we are empowered to grow and to mature.  Within loving communities we empowered to become who we truly are in an environment that respects and fosters our diverse gifts.

 

         Mutual and faithful relationships enable us to acknowledge our faults and to seek reconciliation and renewal.  You may remember the 1970’s movie, Love Story, and its famous line, ‘Loves means never having to say you’re sorry.’  No falser statement has ever been made.  Mutual and faithful relationships understand the necessity of forgiveness so that old hurts and new wrongs can be laid aside in order to shape a new creation.  In a world beset by an absence of forgiveness, a dearth of reconciliation, our loving relationships can be part of the healing of creation.

 

         Mutual and faithful relationships embody the good news of God in Christ.  We shape our lives in accordance with the vision of the kingdom of God we see in Jesus.  Our relationships, whether at home or at work or in our neighbourhoods, reveal how the love of God embodied in Jesus can transform lives “ . . . so that we and all (God’s) children shall be free, and the whole earth live to praise (God’s) name” (The Book of Alternative Services1985, 215). 

 

         Mutual and faithful relationships strengthen us in loving our neighbours as ourselves.  Archbishop William Temple is supposed to have said that the Christian community is the one human society that exists primarily for its non-members.  To love another person means taking the risk to do what is needed so that the other person can become more truly who they are.  At the heart of service is listening and truly loving relationships teach us how to listen to one another – without judgement, without an agenda, without expectation of any reward other than the strengthening of love.

 

         Mutual and faithful relationships empower us to work to overcome all the arbitrary restrictions and obstacles that prevent others from experiencing the fullness of life.  Healthy and life-giving relationships can only thrive where people are free from all that inhibits genuine human community.  When we enjoy such relationships, we can banish “ . . . all that kills abundant living . . . pride of status, race or schooling, dogmas that obscure (God’s) plan” (Fred Kaan, ‘For the Healing of the Nations’ in Songs for a Gospel People1987, #23).

 

         In today’s second reading from the Letter of James, we are encouraged to be “ . . . doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. “ (James 1.22 NRSVue).  In our proper praise and gratitude for the love of God, we may forget that our own relationships of mutual and faithful love with other human beings are how we do the Word not just hear it.

 

         It’s hard work to create and sustain relationships of mutual and faithful love.  Sometimes we have to acknowledge our failures and seek out new paths.  But we cannot give up on the life-long vocation to be people who know that without mutual and faithful human love we cannot abide in God.  Perhaps this is the knowledge that led the Jewish and Christian teachers to recognize that the Song of Songs is ‘Holy Word and Holy Wisdom’.  Thanks be to God.

 

            Note:  The core of this sermon is based on ‘Towards a Theology of Christians in Marriage’ written in 2005 as a theological commentary on the Marriage Canon of the Anglican Church of Canada.

 

         

Ordo for Ordinary Time II at the Anglican Church of the Epiphany

  

 

 

  

The Holy Eucharist for Ordinary Time II 2024

Church of the Epiphany

 

We acknowledge that, 

as a Parish of the Diocese of New Westminster, 

we gather on the traditional and unceded 

Coast Salish territories 

of the Katzie, Kwantlen and Semiahmoo First Nations.

 

Welcome to the Church of the Epiphany

 

Whether you have been a life-long Anglican or are new to our tradition, we welcome you with us this morning!  If you are unaccustomed to the Anglican way of worship, simply let the words, music and symbols gently speak to you.  Participate as fully as you feel comfortable in doing. We stand to sing and sit to listen.  Some people kneel for prayer, some sit and some stand.  Please do what you find is most helpful to your prayer.

 

The Gloria and the Sanctus are found at the end of this booklet.

 

The Hymns and Readings will be found in the Sunday bulletin along with important announcements and other information. 

 

You are invited to join in reciting the texts in bold text.

 

The Gathering of the Community

 

Prelude

 

Opening Hymn

 

 

Greeting

 

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

And also with you.

 

Collect of Purity

 

Almighty God, 

to you all hearts are open,

all desires known,

and from you no secrets are hidden.  

Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts

by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,

that we may perfectly love you,

and worthily magnify your holy name;

through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

 

Gloria

Common Praise #366

 

Collect of the Day

 

Let us pray.

 

The Collect of the Day is first prayed in English and then in Arabic.

 

The Proclamation of the Word

 

The First Reading

 

At the end of the Reading

Holy Word, holy Wisdom.

Thanks be to God.

 

The Psalm of the Day

 

The Second Reading

 

At the end of the Reading

Holy Word, holy Wisdom.

Thanks be to God.

 

Gradual Hymn

 

The Gospel

 

Before the Gospel 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to . . . . .

Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

 

After the Gospel

The Gospel of Christ.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

 

The Sermon

 

The Apostles’ Creed

 

Let us confess the faith of our baptism.

 

I believe in God, the Father almighty,

creator of heaven and earth.

 

I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died and was buried;

he descended to the dead.

On the third day he rose again;

he ascended into heaven,

he is seated at the right hand of the Father,

and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

 

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting.  Amen.

 

The Prayers of the Community

 

Intercessions, Petitions and Thanksgivings

 

Confession and Absolution

 

Let us pray for the forgiveness of our sins.

 

Have mercy upon us, most merciful God,

In your compassion, forgive us our sins,

known and unknown,

things done and left undone;

and so uphold us by your Spirit

that we may live and serve you in newness of life,

to the honour and glory of your name;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

 

May the God of love and power forgive you and free you from your sins, heal and strengthen by the Holy Spirit, and raise you to new life in Christ our Lord.  Amen.

 

The Exchange of the Peace

 

We are the body of Christ.  In the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.  Let us then pursue all that makes for peace and builds up our common life.

 

The peace of the Lord be always with you.

And also with you.

 

The Holy Communion

 

The Offertory Hymn

 

The Prayer over the Gifts

 

Merciful God,

as grains of wheat scattered upon the hills 

were gathered together to become one bread, 

so let your church be gathered together 

from the ends of the earth into your kingdom, 

for yours is the glory through Jesus Christ, 

now and for ever.  Amen.

 

The Great Thanksgiving

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts.

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give our thanks and praise.

 

All thanks and praise are yours at all times and in all places, our true and loving God; through Jesus Christ, your eternal Word, the Wisdom from on high by whom you created all things. You laid the foundations of the world and enclosed the sea when it burst out from the womb; you brought forth all creatures of the earth and gave breath to humankind.

 

Wondrous are you, Holy One of blessing, all you create is a sign of hope for our journey; and so as the morning stars sing your praises we join the heavenly beings and all creation as we shout with joy:

 

Sanctus

Common Praise #719

 

Glory and honour are yours, Creator of all, your Word has never been silent; you called a people to yourself, as a light to the nations, you delivered them from bondage and led them to a land of promise.  Of your grace, you gave Jesus to be human, to share our life, to proclaim the coming of your holy reign and give himself for us, a fragrant offering.

 

Through Jesus Christ our Redeemer, you have freed us from sin, brought us into your life, reconciled us to you, and restored us to the glory you intend for us.  

 

We thank you that on the night before he died for us Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks to you, he broke it, gave it to his friends and said:  “Take, eat, this is my body, broken for you.  Do this for the remembrance of me.”

 

After supper Jesus took the cup of wine, said the blessing, gave it to his friends and said:  “Drink this, all of you:  this cup is the new covenant in my blood, poured out for you and for all for the forgiveness of sin.  Do this for the remembrance of me.”

 

And so, remembering all that was done for us:  the cross, the tomb, the resurrection and ascension, longing for Christ’s coming in glory, and presenting to you these gifts your earth has formed and human hands have made, we acclaim you, O Christ:

 

Dying, you destroyed our death.  

Rising, you restored our life.  

Christ Jesus, come in glory!

 

Send your Holy Spirit upon us and upon these gifts of bread and wine that they may be to us the body and blood of your Christ.  Grant that we, burning with your Spirit’s power, may be a people of hope, justice and love.

 

Giver of life, draw us together in the body of Christ, and in the fullness of time gather us with all your people into the joy of our true eternal home.

 

Through Christ and with Christ and in Christ, by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, we worship you our God and Creator in voices of unending praise.  

 

Blessed are you now and for ever.  Amen.

 

The Lord’s Prayer

 

As our Saviour taught us, let us pray:

Our Father, who art in heaven, 

hallowed be thy name, 

thy kingdom come, 

thy will be done 

on earth as it is in heaven.  

Give us this day our daily bread.  

And forgive us our trespasses, 

as we forgive those who trespass against us.  

And lead us not into temptation, 

but deliver us from evil.  

For thine is the kingdom, 

the power and the glory, 

forever and ever.  Amen.

 

 

The Breaking of the Bread

 

We break this bread

to share in the body of Christ.

We who are many are one body,

for we all share in the one bread.

 

These are the gifts of God for the people of God.  

Thanks be to God.

 

The Communion

 

The Sending Forth of the Community

 

The Prayer after Communion

 

Loving God,

we give you thanks

for restoring us in your image

and nourishing us with spiritual food

in the sacrament of Christ’s body and blood.

Now send us forth a people forgiven, healed, renewed;

that we may proclaim your love to the world

and continue in the risen life of Christ our Saviour.  Amen.

 

The Doxology

 

Glory to God, 

whose power, working in us,

can do infinitely more

than we can ask or imagine.  

Glory to God from generation to generation,

in the Church and in Christ Jesus,

for ever and ever.  Amen.

 

Announcements

 

The Blessing

 

God’s blessing be with you,

Christ’s peace be with you,

the Spirit’s outpouring be with you,

now and always.  Amen.

 

The Closing Hymn

 

The Dismissal

 

The Presider or other Minister dismisses the Community.  The Community responds to the Dismissal with the words, Thanks be to God.

 

The Postlude

Where Does God Abide? Reflections on 1 Kings 8 and John 6

Where Does God Abide?

Reflections on 1 Kings 8 and John 6

 

RCL Proper 21B

25 August 2024

 

Church of the Epiphany

Surrey BC

 

            Twice in my life I have emigrated from one country to another.  The first time I was an infant accompanying my mother as we crossed the Atlantic from England where we both had been born to the United States where my father had been re-assigned.  Even he was about to experience a major change from the familiar rolling hills of the Adirondak Mountains of upstate New York to the sharp and soaring Front Range of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.

 

            The second time was in 1987 when Paula, our first-born child and I left the United States for Vancouver where I was to take up a teaching post at Vancouver School of Theology.  Paula had never left the boundaries of the forty-eight states south of the Canadian border.  Neither of us expected to remain in Canada for more than three years, maybe six.

 

            I know that many of you here today have had similar experiences of leaving familiar places that had been where you were born and grown up to move somewhere else.  Perhaps you, like I, have felt a longing for home.  Even after almost forty years of living in Canada, there are moments when I feel a stranger.  Someone here in the Lower Mainland will say to me, ‘Oh!  I forgot you’re an American.  You won’t understand.’  Or I’ll be in Toronto for a meeting or some other gathering and someone will say something that reminds me that I’m a person who’s from the western part of North American not the central heartland.  Or, as happened this summer, I’ll be visiting friends and family in Colorado and I’ll suddenly realize that I’m a foreigner with a different perspective on the world.

 

            We immigrants are always seeking a place to call ‘home’.  We continue to seek such places even after we’ve been in one place for many years.  I think that it’s something built into every human being – the desire to feel comfortable, to feel secure, to feel at peace in our surroundings.

 

            Perhaps this is why I find Simon Peter’s words in today’s reading from the Gospel according to John touch my heart so deeply:  “So Jesus asked the twelve, ‘Do you also wish to go away?’  Simon Peter answered him. ‘Lord, to whom can we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’” (John 6.67-69 NSRVue)

 

            Remember, my friends, that Peter and the rest of the twelve have already left friends, family and their former lives behind.  They have stretched thin if not cut entirely the ties that bind them to ‘life before Jesus’.  They are sleeping rough.  They are sometimes hungry.  They are often the object of scorn by other people.  Where can they go?  Or, to use one of the evangelist John’s favourite words, where can they abide?

 

            Even Solomon standing the midst of the great Temple he has built in Jerusalem to house the Ark of the Covenant, God’s resting-place on earth, knows full well that God has a habit of going on ‘walk-about’.  God has travelled everywhere the people of Israel have travelled.  God refused to give David permission to build a temple.  Even though God is pleased with what Solomon has accomplished, God is making no promises that this building will be God’s fixed address, a box in which to confine the Holy One.

 

            Just as immigrants seek a home in a strange land, just as Peter and his companions seek a home in the presence of Jesus, so does God seek a home, a place where God may abide.  There are many holy places where God has been known to stop and to abide for a while – there are thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of them throughout the world.  Some are ancient places that continue to be pilgrimage destinations.  Others are more recent and not as famous.  And then there are the unexpected places where God chooses to rest for a moment to bring transformation, hope and peace before moving on to wherever the Holy One chooses to go next.

 

            As we keep seeking to find where God abides, we may lose sight of two things.  First, God cannot be contained by any single space no matter how magnificent.  God reveals Godself wherever God chooses to do so.  We can only come with open and expectant hearts, minds, souls and hands in the hope that we will meet God in these familiar places.

 

            But more importantly is this.  Just as we are seeking to find where God abides, so is God seeking to abide in us, wherever we are.  God does not remain stationary but is constantly on the move and at work in the world to draw us into a deeper relationship with Jesus, the one in whom we see what means to abide with God and to be fully alive as a human being.

 

            Our holy places are holy because they are where we encounter God and become aware of God in us and around us.  Such encounters are not limited to familiar or traditional sacred spaces.  God follows us in our daily migrations to work or to school or to our kitchen tables or wherever our feet and hearts take us.

 

            Simon Peter asks Jesus, ‘Where can we go?’  And God answers, ‘Anywhere because I am not tied to any fixed address.  I am with you in every moment, every place, every experience, every relationship.  All of these are holy ground. Seek me there.  Abide with me there.’

 

            In our blue hymnal, Common Praise, there is a hymn by Thomas Troeger, an American hymn writer, that I particularly like.  I found myself humming it as I was preparing this sermon.  I’ll close with the first two verses.

 

Seek not in distant, ancient hills

the promised holy land,

but where you live do what God wills

and find it close at hand.

 

A single heaven wraps around

this whirling, watered stone,

and every place is sacred ground

where God is loved and known.

 

Common Praise #470 vv. 1,2

 

 

Seeking a Listening Heart: Reflections on Wisdom

 

RCL Proper 20B

18 August 2024

 

Church of the Epiphany

Surrey BC

 

            About fifteen years ago I faced a professional crisis, a moment when I needed to consider what was to come next in my life as a pastor, priest and teacher.  To help me discern what those next steps might be, I spent some time with Bishop Jim Cruickshank of blessed memory.  By this time Jim was the retired Bishop of Cariboo who had led the Diocese as it faced the financial consequences of the residential school legacy of Lytton.  Before becoming bishop, Jim had been the Director of Sorrento Centre, a professor at Vancouver School of Theology and Dean of Christ Church Cathedral.  He was also one of the wisest people I have ever known.

            Jim’s wisdom sprang from a number of plentiful wells.  He was a scholar and a person with a deep spiritual life.  Jim was practical but willing to take risks.  He loved the Church even as he saw its challenges and failures clearly.  Jim had a passion for the good news of God in Christ and for justice and reconciliation.  He was unfailingly kind and always spoke the truth in genuine love.

            We have a great need for wise people like Jim in our world.  So, it is a happy coincidence that all of the Scriptures we have heard today speak about wisdom.  Solomon knows that he cannot govern the unruly and unpredictable people of Israel without wisdom.  In today’s Psalm we hear the familiar phrase, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 111.10 NSRVue).  The writer of the Letter to the Ephesians exhorts a mixed community of Jewish and non-Jewish Christians “(to be) careful . . . how you live, not as unwise people but as wise” (Ephesians 5.15 NRSVue).

            Although the words ‘wise’ and ‘wisdom’ do not appear in the Gospel reading from John, there is a whiff, a hint of what it means to be wise contained in Jesus’ words to his critics.  To be wise, Jesus says to them – and to us – is to be one with Jesus and in that unity to experience the life of God in the here and now of our everyday lives.  Such wisdom, such eternal life, Jesus says, comes from ‘eating’ his flesh and ‘drinking’ his blood.

            We have come to hear these words primarily as a reference to the consecrated bread and wine of the eucharist.  To be sure, we do share in the one bread and the one cup to be one with Christ and with Christians throughout time and space.  But I think we need to dig a little deeper into this symbolic language.

            Most of us are familiar with the saying, “You are what you eat.”  In recent decades scientists have learned how to trace a person’s life history by examining their bones and their teeth.  Recently archaeologists discovered the skeleton of a Roman soldier buried in England.  By examining his bones and his teeth, they were able to determine that he had been born in the steppes of Russia, spent time in northern Africa and Italy, then came to England.  All this information because of the traces of chemicals from the water he drank, the air he breathed and the food he ate.

            If it were possible to do a spiritual scan of our bodies, minds and souls, what traces of our relationship with God would it find?  Would such a scan discover how we have come to love God and our neighbour more and more?  Would it reveal how we have come to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with God, with each other and with this ‘fragile earth, our island home’?  Before anyone goes to the negative, let me tell you this:  I believe that such a scan would show that all of us have more than just traces of our relationship with God within us.  Is there room for growth?  Certainly.  But no one is starting from zero.  God has imprinted within each of us the divine image.  And that image is the power to love – to be life-giving rather than life-denying.

            Our life’s purpose is to grow into the likeness of God; that is to say, to become more and more God-like in our thoughts and actions.  To do this we must grow into Christ.  That’s what it means to eat his flesh and to drink his blood.  We eat Christ’s flesh when we live as Christ lived.  We drink Christ’s blood when we seek the unity of life that Christ has with God.  It is in this endeavour that we become truly wise, a wisdom that arises from our knowledge of God, our experience of God’s generous love and our intentional practice of Christ-like living.

            In the Hebrew Scriptures wisdom is sometimes described as having ‘a listening heart’ (The Jewish Study Bible 2004 re 1 Kings 3.9).  Each time we gather for the eucharist, the wise listen to God’s Word among all the words we say and sing.  Each time we gather for the eucharist, the wise listen to what their hearts are telling them about the needs and concerns of the world.  Each time we gather for the eucharist, the wise listen for Christ’s heartbeat within them as they share in the bread and wine.  Each time we gather for the eucharist, the wise listen for what God would have them do as they leave this place and return to the places where they live, work and love.

            The wisdom that Jim Cruickshank shared with me fifteen years ago has not yet been fulfilled in my life.  I still have much to learn and more to do.  But what Jim showed me is that wisdom is not the possession of the few, but God’s life offered for all.  It is a wisdom shown to us in the life of Jesus of Nazareth.  It is a wisdom that God puts on the table for all of us to eat and to drink.

            So let us eat.  So let us drink.  So let us grow in wisdom.

Walking into the Sea: Reflections on Commitment

 

RCL Proper 19B

11 August 2024

 

Church of the Epiphany

Surrey BC

 

Choosing to Commit

            In the fall of 1960 my father was transferred to an overseas assignment in Germany.  His assignment came during that time of heightened international tensions we call ‘the Cold War’.  Because there was inadequate family housing in Germany, my mother, sister and I lived with our grandparents in England while my father lived on base in Wiesbaden.  I went to an American school on a nearby US Air Force base.

 

            It was a presidential election year in the United States.  Richard Nixon, the Vice President and a Republican, was running against Senator John F. Kennedy, a Democrat.  Even as schoolchildren we became embroiled in the emotions of the election.  Because Kennedy was a Roman Catholic, some of his opponents questioned whether his loyalty was to the Pope or to the Constitution.  In an era of black and white television, Nixon did not come across well.  No matter how closely he shaved, he always looked a bit sinister.  But, as you know, Kennedy was elected, the first Roman Catholic president and the first president to have been born in the twentieth century.

 

            In January of 1961 Kennedy was sworn in as president and gave his first and only inaugural address.  Even though I was only seven going on eight years old, I remember these words:  “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”  He asked the American people to choose to commit to becoming the country they desired rather than waiting for something to happen.

 

Waiting for Bread

            Over the past weeks we have been hearing portions of the sixth chapter of the Gospel according to John.  Again and again we hear Jesus talk about himself as the ‘bread from heaven’ or the ‘bread of life’.  These words of Jesus follow the feeding of the five thousand (John 6.1-14), a miraculous multiplication of meagre supplies of bread and fish.  What is draws my attention is not so much the miracle, but the response of the people to the miracle.

 

            To be sure the people of Judea in the time of Jesus did not enjoy what we now call ‘food security’.  People struggled to feed their families and themselves, so it’s no wonder that a miraculous meal would appeal to the real physical hunger people were experiencing.  But the miracle obscures what Jesus is asking of the people.  They want bread to feed their immediate hunger; he wants commitment to lives that embody the eternal life that Jesus is living and proclaiming. The bread that Jesus is offering to them, the bread that lasts, is God’s invitation to live as members of God’s beloved community in the here and now.

 

            The writer of the Letter to the Ephesians describes what living as members of God’s beloved community means.

 

·      It means speaking the truth.

·      It means preventing anger from guiding what we do and say.

·      It means building one another up rather than tearing one another down.

·      It means choosing tender-heartedness and forgiveness over bitterness, wrath, slander and malice.

·      It means walking in the same love as Christ has shown to us.

 

If we look around us at the world today, at Canada today, then it is not difficult for us to see that there is still much for us to do in living as God’s beloved community.

 

            Sometimes it seems to me that people keep hoping that something or someone will drop down from heaven and magically solve our every need.  Someone has come, but, in order to benefit from God’s invitation and gift, commitment is required.  We are, as the writer to the Ephesians puts it, to become “a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5.2b).

            We forget what the word ‘sacrifice’ actually means.  We are used to thinking about sacrifices as something we give up in order to achieve a goal.  But the roots of the word are ‘to make something holy’.  To sacrifice is not about giving something up or self-denial, unless that helps us become ‘imitators of God (and) beloved children’ (Ephesians 5.1). Sacrifice is the choice to every moment of our lives a living witness to the love of God made flesh in Jesus of Nazareth and, dear friends, made flesh in us, the on-going community of God’s beloved.

 

Walking in over Our Heads

            There is a Jewish story about the parting of the Red Sea.  Although Nahshon, the lead character in this story, is mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures and in the New Testament, the story is not found in the Scriptures themselves.  It’s a story told in the Jewish tradition to interpret and to expand upon the biblical story itself.

 

            The story goes like this.  When the Israelites arrived at the Red Sea, the waters did not immediately part.  With Pharaoh’s army fast approaching behind them, the people began to despair.  They knew that Moses had promised a miracle, but they would not commit to entering the waters.  They wanted the waters parted and a clear path.  But nothing was happening.  

 

            God has promised to protect the people.  God had already performed many signs on their behalf.  But were they ready to act in faith and go forward?

 

            From among the people Nahshon emerged.  He entered into the waters of the Sea and continued to walk until his head was under the water.  Then the waters parted and the people were able to cross in safety.  But only after someone had taken the risk, made a commitment and walked in over their head.

 

Taking the Risk

            These are not easy times to be a Christians, especially for communities such as ours that have rich traditions of worship, theology and spirituality.  Our way of following Jesus and of seeking ways to become more truly a community of God’s beloved requires taking risks and making commitments. 

 

            We are here today because people have taken risks and made commitments.  I am here because my parents took the risk of getting married and having children.  They also made the commitment to raise their children in the Christian faith.  Each one of us here has a similar story of risks taken and commitments made that we can tell.  Perhaps the stories are of the risks we have taken and the commitments we have made.

 

            Miracles and signs from heaven do not just happen.  They happen when people such as you and I decide to enter the waters of faith and to continue to walk forward even as those waters rise to our ears, to our noses, to our eyes – perhaps even over our heads.  

 

            We are at such a point in the life of this Parish.  We know what our needs are.  We know what our fears are.  I trust we know what our hopes are.  The Bread of Life that God offers us in Jesus continues to feed us and to sustain us, so that we can enter the waters and experience the promises.

 

            We do not enter the waters alone.  We have the beloved community of Epiphany.  We have the beloved community of our Deanery and Archdeaconry.  We have the beloved community of the Diocese.  There is no end to the beloved communities with whom we are joined through the Spirit in the Body of Christ.  So let us walk with confidence and see how wet we need to get.